MiniMax-M3 vs Mistral Small 3.2
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax or Mistral Small 3.2 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
MiniMax-M3 scores 22.2 points higher (29.2 vs 7.0) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $122; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 7.0, and Mistral Small 3.2 when 7.0 is enough.
| Metric | MiniMax-M3 | Mistral Small 3.2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 29.2 | 7.0 | −76.0% Mistral Small 3.2 is 76.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $537.98 | $121.78 | −77.4% Mistral Small 3.2 is 77.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 26.74s | 12.50s | −53.3% Mistral Small 3.2 is 53.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.07 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.2 vs MiniMax-M3: 76.0% less intelligence, 77.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 53.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- Mistral Small 3.2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
MiniMax-M3Mistral Small 3.2Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3/mistral-small-3-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3/mistral-small-3-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill